📊 This week on Market Pulse - Growing Institutional Demand in Crypto ⤵

🔹Crypto Overview

- Crypto outpaced Equities: Bitcoin rallied approximately 10.5%, returning to its pre-correction range above ~$90k. $BTC outperformed SPY by about 5.6%.

- Strong Institutional Demand: US Spot $BTC ETF logged over $3 billion net inflow last week, marking the first full week of inflows in five weeks.

- Cantor Fitzgerald, SoftBank, and Tether enter a partnership to form a $3.6 billion crypto venture. Backed by over 42,000 $BTC—making it immediately the third-largest corporate Bitcoin treasury.

- Regulatory: Fed joined the OCC and FDIC in withdrawing Crypto warnings for US banks. Trump says federal income taxes will be “substantially reduced” or eliminated.

- $BTC whales return in force, with whale addresses (≥1K $BTC and ≥10K $BTC) showing strong accumulation (~44K $BTC), the largest weekly uptake since August 2024 (Source: Glassnode).

🔹The Bitcoin Rally

- Bitcoin ($BTC) maintained support above approximately $92,000 last week, driven by renewed confidence in derivatives positioning.

- $BTC open interest surged by about $2.4 billion in 36 hours to $38.6 billion, triggering over $266 million in liquidations (75% shorts).

- $BTC recorded the highest outflow from centralized exchanges in two years, reducing exchange supply to 2.5 million $BTC, the lowest since Q3 2018. (CryptoQuant)

- ARKK raised their bullish target price for $BTC to $2.4 million by 2030.

- The 30-day correlation between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 (IBIT–SPX) dropped back to lows seen in mid-February, as Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) faces resistance at its all-time weekly closing high from January, eyeing new relative highs soon.

🔹Other Crypto Takeaways

- DeFi Development Corp (JNVR), formerly Janover, added approximately $9.9 million worth of Solana ($SOL) to its treasury, bringing total holdings to about 317,273 $SOL (~$48 million). $SOL rose around 8% last week, boosted by strong institutional interest in newly listed Canadian $SOL ETFs.

- CME Group announced plans to launch cash-settled XRP futures on May 19, pending approval, with XRP jumping about 6% last week.

- ETH followed the market higher, outperforming with approximately 13% gains as it rose to around 1,800.

- $SUI was the star performer, rallying approximately 68% since late January, driven by Grayscale’s launch of the Grayscale $SUI Trust and a strategic partnership with Mastercard enabling about 2.5 million European users to spend $SUI tokens at over 20,000 merchants via Apple Pay and Google Pay.

- TRUMP surged approximately 80% after a promotional campaign offering exclusive dinner events and VIP perks with President Donald Trump to top holders.

🔹 TradFi Overview

- Wall Street ended the week higher as sentiment for equities was lifted by signals of easing tensions in the US-China trade war.

- Tariff developments remain in the market’s focus.

- Asian equities had a mixed start, while US stock futures pointed lower as investors prepare for a busy week of big tech earnings and key US macro data releases.

- The dollar started the week steady, set for a heavy monthly decline.

🔹Outlook for the Week

- A busy week of Big Tech earnings, including Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon.

- US GDP, Jobs, and PCE data will be in focus, providing the first glimpse of the impact of recent global trade tariff regimes.

- Tariff developments remain on the radar, as they could trigger market volatility at any time.